Econ Jargon Watch

A friend of mine who is an editor read the Solow piece I posted yesterday and emailed me this comment:

I was particularly interested to read the following sentence:

"But this is not a bad FIRST APPROXIMATION in many cases."

I don't think I have edited one econ manuscript that has not used the phrase "first approximation" many, many times. When econ PhDs are given out, are you all required to sign a secret agreement that says you must use this phrase in anything you write?

Note that I have not found a similar phrase in the other disciplines for which I've edited several books (chemistry, biology, anatomy, physiology, genetics, physics, political science, and history).